Virtual Teams

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Since we developed the world’s first virtual teams training programme in 1994, virtual teams have become the norm for managerial and professional people in complex organizations.

84% According to a 2015 Gallup survey 84% of people work in virtual teams for at least part of the time. Our own research shows that the average person in complex organizations is a member of four virtual teams at any one time.

40% Well managed virtual teams can be up to 40% more productive than co-located teams. However they do require new skills and ways of working to be successful

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Virtual Team Varieties

1. Remote teams

2. Virtual teams

Operate through influence rather than reporting lines, and team members are often part-time

3. Matrix teams

Cross functions, business units and reporting lines

4. Global, regional or international teams

Have the additional challenges of working across cultures and time zones

5. Extended teams

Include customers, suppliers or other external partners

Your particular team will have its own blend of virtual team challenges in working across barriers of distance, cultures, time zones, through technology and across organizational boundaries. It is clear that a “one size fits all” approach to virtual team leadership and collaboration is unlikely to be successful.

Virtual teams can reduce the costs of facilities and travel, access talent irrespective of distance and deliver results even more productively than face-to-face teams. The business logic is clear but this way of working does require new skills to communicate, collaborate and get things done without high levels of face-to-face contact.

In the absence of these skills virtual teams often fail to create engagement and a sense of identity and team spirit. We need to make sure that our people have the skills they need to succeed in this more complex environment.

Our programs are tailored to your specific mix of challenges based on our unique intellectual property developed in over 20 years focusing on this topic with hundreds of leading organizations around the world.

Speak to one of our specialists and we can quickly put together a program tailored to your needs.

Matrix, virtual or global – or all 3?

Your team or organization may have only one, or possibly all three of these challenges.

Our clients often use the terms interchangeably, although they are increasingly using the phrase matrix to describe all of the issues mentioned above – even if they don’t have a formal matrix structure.

Our programs can be quickly tailored to your specific blend of challenges.

Training, coaching and consulting support in building the skills to lead and succeed in a virtual team environment. Because virtual teams may rarely meet we deliver programs face-to-face, by webinar, blended or fully online